Men's grad rates still lag

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

A report says that female players do far better academically than men.

March 27, 2008|By Josh Robbins, Sentinel Staff Writer

As the men's and women's NCAA Tournaments near their halfway points, the UCF's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport reminds us that some successful men's teams are better at shooting a basketball than graduating their players.

Richard Lapchick's latest study on graduation rates, released Wednesday, shows that seven of the remaining men's teams -- including top-seeded Kansas, Memphis and UCLA -- graduated fewer than 50 percent of their players in recent years.

The report also notes that female players do far better academically than men.

Every women's Sweet 16 team graduated at least 55 percent of its players. Tennessee and Connecticut, the most storied programs in women's basketball, graduated 100 and 92 percent of their players.

"I think it reflects historical patterns that women's programs admit student-athletes who are more responsible in high school perhaps and come in with an academic work ethic that is reinforced by the women's coaches," Lapchick said.

"The schools with those high percentages prove that it can be done."

Relying on data from the NCAA, Lapchick compiled the graduation rates for the classes that began as college freshmen during the 1997-98, 1998-99, 1999-2000, 2000-01 school years.

Overall, Lapchick said, both men's and women's programs are doing a better job of graduating their players than in the past. He credits NCAA reforms that take away scholarships from programs that don't perform well academically.

But he remains concerned about the large gap in graduation rates for white and African-American students.

Lapchick said that many African-American students suffer academically partly because urban school districts leave them at a disadvantage once they reach college.

"They come from schools that are under-funded, ill-equipped and don't have the modern technology that you'd find in the suburban schools," Lapchick said. "Often the best teachers have left those urban schools. So, they come to our campuses behind their comparable white teammates, whether they're men or women, and have to catch up, if they can catch up, while they're there."